D-backs’ fans started their weekend suffering through the team’s first shutout of the season
Game Summary
Welp.
Not a whole lot to recap here, at least on the Diamondbacks’ offensive side of things. There were only 2 Snakes that reached 2nd base all night, and that only happened through a balk and defensive indifference. And all that incompetence in the batter’s box was against the team with the worst ERA in MLB. Against a starter making his first start of the season because he was jobless until after Spring Training started.
Eduardo Rodriguez, on the other hand, was quite good. He pitched into the 7th inning for the first time this year (now three straight D-backs starters have pitched at least 6 innings; did that kind of streak happen even once in 2024?), and was tagged for 3 runs on mostly soft contact and a key Passed Ball where Gabi may have been crossed up by the bunt attempt from the hitter. Joe Mantiply, on to keep the game at a 3-run deficit at the end of the 8th, failed. He got his one out in the 8th, but in the 9th, it all went pear-shaped with his command and had some in the GDT speculating on the date of his ticket to Reno.
The advanced stats would say the Diamondbacks were unlucky. They had an xBA of .317 compared to the Brewers .210 and over half the Diamondbacks contact was classified as Hard Hits (only a fifth of Brewers batted balls were classified as such). The Brewers defense was in position to make plays on the Diamondbacks contact and the Brewers soft contact was well-placed. That’s baseball. The Diamondbacks didn’t deserve to win this game. They didn’t have long at bats to push Quintana in his first action outside the Complex League. They didn’t play buttoned up baseball. It was just a ‘meh’ of a game that Torey will tell his team to flush and come back to the ballpark tomorrow ready to play.
Win Probability and Box Score
Outside the Box Score
- In the first inning, the D-backs made 3 outs on 3 balls hit with exit velos of 95.6, 107.3 (a single), and 105.6 (GIDP).
- The top of the third inning started off with two excellent defensive plays to pick up E-Rod. First, Jake McCarthy made a sliding grab on a sinking line drive into short center field, then Out #2 was made on an excellent diving stop of a grounder to Garrett Hampson at second who then was able to quickly get to his feet and make a solid throw to get out the speedy Jackson Chourio.
- The Brewers 2 doubles to lead off the 4th and score the first run of the game were hit at less than 80mph. In this age of Statcast this and spin rate that, it’s still about “hittin’ ‘em where they aint”.
- Rodriguez was hit harder in the fifth, but only gave up 2 runs due to a Passed Ball by Gabi that was right down the middle. Still, his pitch count is only at 74 so should be able to go out and have a shot a quality start (narrator: he did indeed get a quality start).
- Not many notes on the D-backs hitters tonight because they aren’t really doing much of note. A couple inning ending GIDPs and a hit by Jake McCarthy (yay) that was immediately followed by a pickoff (boo) meant the Snakes have sent the minimum to the plate against Jose Quintana through 6 innings.
- E-Rod’s calling card of pitching to soft contact (conspicuously absent through the first 2 starts of 2025) appears to have returned. His average EV coming into the night was 91.4, but tonight his EV against was 80.5.
- I kept waiting on Corbin to try and steal second after reaching 1st in the 7th inning, but he never went of his own volition. Instead, he had to be ushered to second when Quintana balked him over (the first Snake to touch second base all night).
- Mantiply kinda fell apart in the 9th, but a play that struck me as very un-Diamondback in the Lovullo era was when Perdomo received a cutoff throw to third. Instead of eating it and keeping runners at the corners and no out, Domo decided to throw through to third and the hitter was able to advance to second easily since no one was on second base. The next two hitters hit groundballs so very likely could have had a GIDP. That runner who advanced a free 90 feet to second did eventually come around to score.
Players of the Game
Eduardo Rodriguez gets the nod here. His ERA still doesn’t seem to match how well he’s pitching. Only credited with 2 ER over 6.1 IP tonight is a very good start. He was back to his signature soft contact with less punch outs than his last time out. This is the E-Rod I thought we were getting a year ago: a veteran who can pitch to contact and soak up innings. If this is who he is for the next few years of his deal, we should be pretty happy with it.
Comment of the Night
There were a total of 300 comments in the GDT at time of publishing. There was a 4-way tie in terms of most rec’d comment, so between those four I will award COTN to ChefAZ with this:
Honorable mention to kilnborn with a great summation of E-Rod’s hard luck loss.
Coming Up
The D-backs face the Brew Crew in the second game of this three game set tomorrow at 5:10pm Arizona time. Corbin Burnes faces the team he grew up with on the home side, while Pat Murphy’s squad sends out rookie right-hander Chad Patrick and his 2.45 ERA to counter. Hopefully there are more fireworks from the D-backs offense than there were tonight (low bar).